What's Wrong in America: Declining Life Expectancy

Map of those overweight and obese by state. 

Life expectancy is continuing to rise in other advanced, wealthy nations, including the liberal European nations so derided by American conservatives. Such is not the case in the United States where life expectancy is falling, with sharp decreases in age brackets often considered the prime time of one's life.  A report published in the Journal of the American Medical Association looks at the unwanted reality and where the death rate has risen the most: mostly in mid-western "swing states" and the South, regions where Republican political rule predominates. While no one cause explains the phenomenon, there are a number of factors noted in the report, particularly, America's obesity problem.  Go to Europe and walk around almost any city and you will NOT see the large numbers of overweight people and those you do see will most often be American tourists. My own thoughts on this particular problem of obesity focuses on (i) Americans' poor diet and addiction to high calorie fast food and (ii) vastly over-sized portions at American restaurants (things you do not see in Europe).  Then, of course, most other advanced nations have some version of universal health care, something lacking in the USA.  The Washington Post looks at the report and the dire outlook for the future.  Here are article highlights:

Death rates from suicide, drug overdoses, liver disease and dozens of other causes have been rising over the past decade for young and middle-aged adults, driving down overall life expectancy in the United States for three consecutive years, according to a strikingly bleak study published Tuesday that looked at the past six decades of mortality data.

The report, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, was immediately hailed by outside researchers for its comprehensive treatment of a still-enigmatic trend: the reversal of historical patterns in longevity.

Despite spending more on health care than any other country, the United States has seen increasing mortality and falling life expectancy for people age 25 to 64, who should be in the prime of their lives. In contrast, other wealthy nations have generally experienced continued progress in extending longevity.

[T]he broad trend detailed in this study cuts across gender, racial and ethnic lines. By age group, the highest relative jump in death rates from 2010 to 2017 — 29 percent — has been among people age 25 to 34.

The findings are sure to fuel political debate about causes and potential solutions because the geography of rising death rates overlaps to a significant extent with states and regions that are hotly contested in the run-up to the 2020 presidential election.

About a third of the estimated 33,000 “excess deaths” that the study says occurred since 2010 were in just four states: Ohio, Pennsylvania, Kentucky and Indiana — the first two of which are critical swing states in presidential elections. The state with the biggest percentage rise in death rates among working-age people in this decade — 23.3 percent — is New Hampshire, the first primary state.

“It’s supposed to be going down, as it is in other countries,” said the lead author of the report, Steven H. Woolf, director emeritus of the Center on Society and Health at Virginia Commonwealth University. “The fact that that number is climbing, there’s something terribly wrong.”

He said many factors are at play. The opioid epidemic is a major driver of the worrisome numbers but far from the sole cause. The study found that improvements in life expectancy, largely because of lower rates of infant mortality, began to slow in the 1980s, long before the opioid epidemic became a national tragedy.

“Some of it may be due to obesity, some of it may be due to drug addiction, some of it may be due to distracted driving from cellphones,” Woolf said. Given the breadth and pervasiveness of the trend, “it suggests that the cause has to be systemic, that there’s some root cause that’s causing adverse health across many different dimensions for working-age adults.”

The average life expectancy in the United States fell behind that of other wealthy countries in 1998, and since then the gap has grown steadily. Experts refer to this gap as the United States’ “health disadvantage.”

Princeton professors Anne Case and Angus Deaton, whose much-publicized report in 2015 highlighted the death rates in middle-aged whites, published a paper in 2017 pointing to a widening gap in health associated with levels of education, a trend dating to the 1970s. Case told reporters their research showed a “sea of despair” in the United States among people with only a high school diploma or less.

Obesity is a significant part of the story. The average woman in the United States today weighs as much as the average man half a century ago, and men now weigh about 30 pounds more. Most people in the United States are overweight — an estimated 71.6 percent of the population age 20 and older, according to the CDC. That figure includes the 39.8 percent who are obese, defined as having a body mass index of 30 or higher in adults (18.5 to 25 is the normal range). Obesity is also rising in children; nearly 19 percent of the population age 2 to 19 is obese.

“These kids are acquiring obesity in their early teen years, sometimes under the age of 10,” said S. Jay Olshansky, a professor of public health at the University of Illinois at Chicago. “When they get up into their 20s, 30s and 40s, they’re carrying the risk factors of obesity that were acquired when they were children. We didn’t see that in previous generations.”

Scalia's Death Ruled to Due to Heart Attack

I know it is bad form to speak ill of the dead, but with the news that Antonin Scalia's unexpected death was due to a heart attack, it is difficult to refrain from pointing out that while the obese Scalia relished in pointing out the sins of others, he apparently was blind to his own sin of gluttony. WFAA 8-TV has details on the cause of death:

United States Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia’s heart stopped beating during his sleep, Presidio County Judge Cinderela Guevara told WFAA on Sunday.

Guevara officially pronounced him dead at 1:52 p.m. on Saturday. She will be the local official who signs his death certificate.

Hours earlier, the county judge told WFAA that myocardial infarction — or a heart attack — would likely be the cause of death listed. Guevara later said she would confer with the Justice’s personal physician on what specifically to show as the cause of death.

While Scalia died of natural causes and possible because of his own obesity, the right wing conspiracy crowd is claiming that Barack Obama had Scalia murdered in order to open a seat on the Supreme Court.  Contrary to this utter lunacy, WFAA 8 TV reported as follows:

“As part of my investigation one of the things I did ask the sheriff and the U.S. Marshal: 'Were there any signs of foul play? And they said, ‘Absolutely not.’ At that time, I still wanted to be careful and asked them if [Scalia’s] physician would call me.”

The justice’s personal doctor called Guevara at 8 p.m. Saturday night.

“When [the physician] explained [Scalia] had just visited on Wednesday and Thursday, and [the doctor] had done an MRI, then I felt comfortable what I knew was going on with him physically,” she said.

Guevara said Scalia went to his doctor for a shoulder injury last week, but the justice also suffered from several chronic ailments.

 Bottom line: Scalia was 79 years old and grossly over weight.  His bad lifestyle choices caught up with him.  All I can feel is good riddance.

The Bible Belt = Obese Porn Watchers

The disconnect between what Christian fundamentalist say and demand of others and what they actually do is once again in sharp display in the results of two new studies.  We hear these "godly folk" constantly shrieking about the evils of pornography and condemning others for sins that are a matter of "choice" - gays, of course are a favorite target on the latter.  Meanwhile, these folks who live in the Bible Belt use more online porn than anywhere else in America and seemingly lack the ability to make the choice to not shovel another fork full of food into their mouths (perhaps they eat while perusing online porn?).  The sin of gluttony is apparently an unknown concept to this falsely pious folk.

As MSN News reports, the most obese states are, with only two exceptions, located in the Bible Belt with Mississippi leading the way in the most obese state for the second year running:

Most people get psyched when they earn a distinction two years in a row, but we’re guessing Mississippi residents aren’t thrilled with this one: According to findings from a new Gallup poll, the state has the highest obesity rate in the nation for the second year running. The poll found that more than 35 percent of Mississippi residents are obese, trumping runner-up West Virginia by nearly a whole percentage point.

Obesity rates have continuously been highest in Southern and Midwestern states and lowest in Western and Northwestern states, per Gallup.

Yep, it's the awful liberal states so decried in the Bible Belt where folks seemingly have enough "personal responsibility" to put down their forks. 

On the issue of pornography, Patheos looks at the results of a new survey that suggests that while the godly folk are sitting in the pews on Sunday, they may actually be planning their next foray into online porn.  Here are highlights:

Religious conservatives in the Bible Belt search for online porn more than anyone else according to a new study published earlier this month.

The new study, published in the journal Archives of Sexual Behavior and  produced by researchers from Canadian Universities, found that American states with more religious conservatives search more for sexual content on Google.

Researchers used Google Trends to analyze porn searches while linking state level information from Gallup polls asking about religious and political attitudes together with a variety of sex and porn-related search terms.

The following is an excerpt from the study’s Abstract:

(researchers) examined associations between state-level religiosity/conservatism and anonymized interest in searching for sexual content online using Google Trends (which calculates within-state search volumes for search terms). Across two separate years, and controlling for demographic variables, we observed moderate-to-large positive associations between: (1) greater proportions of state-level religiosity and general web searching for sexual content and (2) greater proportions of state-level conservatism and image-specific searching for sex.

[T]he Canadian researchers offer “the paradoxical hypothesis that a greater preponderance of right-leaning ideologies is associated with greater preoccupation with sexual content in private internet activity.”

While one can only speculate as to why there is such a strong connection between the consumption of porn and professed conservative Christian values, multiple reports indicate similar findings concerning the Bible Belt’s apparent voracious appetite for pornography.

The hypocrisy of it all is stunning.  But hypocrisy is, of course a hallmark of fundamentalist Christians.

The Consequences of GOP Policies: Racism, Religious Extremism, Poverty, Obesity and Incarceration

While the Republican Party holds itself out as the guardian of "American values" - as do the Christofascists who control much of the GOP's policies - when one looks at the consequences of the GOP's policies and agenda, the picture is pretty ugly.  Among the consequences/fruits are racism, religious extremism and bigotry, poverty, obesity and incarceration (this latter one is tied to the first, racism).  Yes, some of these problems are historic ones, but over all decent Americans over time have sought to lessen their impact and poisonous consequences.  That changed when the Christofascists hijacked the GOP.  A piece in the Daily Kos looks at these ill fruits.  Here are excerpts:

Evangelical Christians and their willingness to force their beliefs on the rest of us through vociferous political activism and promotion of Biblically based public policies are a huge problem for the future of the planet. . . . . They believe all other religions are false; that science is only good so long as it doesn't contradict a literal interpretation of the Bible, that the Constitution is a Christian document and all non-believers are going to hell. Therefore they vote faithfully for candidates who will govern accordingly. Republicans and even some Republican-lite Democrats, are only too willing to pander to this constituency.

The GOP's leveraging of white evangelicals into Republican votes fits right in to the divide and conquer playbook of the Southern Strategy, which was designed and implemented 40 years ago by Richard Nixon. This strategy of stoking the fires of ignorance and racism has delivered the southern states to the Republicans ever since. 

An internet search of pretty much any demographic data regarding the South, quickly reveals the harm this Southern Strategy has inflicted upon the region. In addition to being highly religious, racist and Republican, the region also suffers the blight of poverty, obesity, incarceration, and almost any other social malady you care to type into your browser. Of course these maladies exist in the other states, some in high ratios, but none rival the depth and intensity of the southern infection.

Evangelicals and racists have walked hand-in-hand for over two centuries. The region has had a strongly entrenched evangelical movement since the nation's founding, long before being referred to as the Bible Belt by American journalist and social commentator H L Mencken in 1924.

While the practice of Christianity, unlike racism, has redeeming qualities the evangelical practitioners have often been complicit in the holy blessing of slavery, lynching and institutional discrimination. Slaveholders justified slavery by citing the Bible: "slaves, obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling" (Ephesians 6:5), or "tell slaves to be submissive to their masters and to give satisfaction in every respect" (Titus 2:9).

The former Party of Lincoln has had its grips on the South since 1968 and no doubt owns the abject misery of the region. The maps and graphs below the fold reveal in stunning visual relief the desperate circumstances in which many of the citizens of the former Confederacy find themselves.

1. Southern states are the most religious: Earlier this month, Gallup released a survey based on more than 175,000 interviews that asked residents of each state how often they attend a weekly religious service. What they found was that the most religious states were in the South, which was home to all but one of the top 12.

2. Southern states are the most evangelical: Evangelical Christians are the base of the Republican party and of that group the Southern Baptists are the dominant sect in the region. 

3. Southern states have the most racist residents: Analysts at Floating Sheep, a website run by a group of independent cyber-geography researchers, found there was a spike of racist tweets on Twitter during and after President Obama’s 2012 re-election.

4. Southern states are controlled by Republicans: The Republican Party is the chef that stirs the pot of racism and evangelical religiosity in the south, and as you can see, where those ingredients are strong so is the GOP. This is no accident. This is the insidious result of "The Southern Strategy". 

5. Southern states have the lowest wages:  In 2010, Mississippi, Tennessee, and Arkansas had the largest share of people earning sub-povery wages, EPI [Economic Policy Institute] found.

6.  Southern states are the most impoverished: This is an obvious side effect of low wages.

7.  Southern states have the highest food stamp usage of any region: An obvious side effect of poverty. In fact, contrary to what Republicans would like you to think, of the 32 states that receive more federal dollars than they contribute, 27 of them are controlled by Republicans, which includes 15 southern states. (Ref:AATTP) 

8.  Southern states have the highest rates of teen pregnancy:  Also contrary to what the teen-mother-shaming Republicans want you to believe, teen pregnancies do not cause poverty, rather poverty causes teen pregnancy.  Teens who get pregnant tend to come from more disadvantaged families than those who do not become pregnant. Moreover, among pregnant teens, those who choose abortion tend to be more advantaged than those who opt to carry the baby to term.

9.  Southern states have the highest rates of obesity: Obesity is a risk for all groups of Americans, but is especially high among Americans with the lowest levels of education and the highest poverty rates

10.  Southern states have higher rates of heart disease and stroke:  Studies have consistently shown that people with low incomes and less education generally have higher rates of heart disease than their more-educated, higher-income counterparts.

11.  Southern states have higher rates of cancer mortality:  According to Dr. Samuel Broder, former director of the National Cancer Institute, "Poverty is a carcinogen". Research cited in the annual Cancer Facts and Figures 2011 released by the American Cancer Society, showed that poverty rivals both tobacco and obesity as a carcinogen.

14.  Southern states have the highest rates of incarceration:  Since the 1980s the attitude of many law and order types has been lock 'em up and throw away the key, "three strikes and you're out" that will solve the problem. But actually this policy of increased incarceration has actually exacerbated the problem of poverty, which has been shown to be the root of so many other miserable statistics.
The shift to tougher penal policies three decades ago was originally credited with helping people in poor neighborhoods by reducing crime. But now that America’s incarceration rate has risen to be the world’s highest, many social scientists find the social benefits to be far outweighed by the costs to those communities. 

“Prison has become the new poverty trap,” said Bruce Western, a Harvard sociologist. “It has become a routine event for poor African-American men and their families, creating an enduring disadvantage at the very bottom of American society.”

Among African-Americans who have grown up during the era of mass incarceration, one in four has had a parent locked up at some point during childhood. For black men in their 20s and early 30s without a high school diploma, the incarceration rate is so high — nearly 40 percent nationwide — that they’re more likely to be behind bars than to have a job.

There are non-southern states that pop in and out of the list of misery to be sure, some even controlled at least in part by Democrats. But the pattern is clear. This is no coincidence. These are the states that consistently show up either at the top of a bad category or at the bottom of a good one. These are the consequences of sustained Republican control.

Democratic leaders have not forcefully called out the GOP for their Southern Strategy and faith-based idiocy, possibly fearing offending moderate Christians. Well it is time to start offending people. Democrats need to put Republicans on the defensive by pounding on the disastrous results of Republican policies over and over and over again, instead of getting drawn into false equivalency debates on Sunday morning talk shows.

The GP and evangelical Christians are toxic to the nation's future.  Their dominance and any deference they receive needs to end.

America's Increasing Obesity

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One of the things that the husband and I noticed in Venice and Greece is that with the exception of American tourists, one did not see many significantly overweight people.  Between a better diet and less enormous portions and much more walking and exercise, Europeans are far less obese than Americans.  What's frightening is that obesity in America is increasing.  The irony is that the far right likes to talk about America's exceptionalism.  We are truly becoming exceptional - exceptionally fat.  And where is obesity the worse?  In the Bible Belt, of course.  The sin of gluttony is apparently an unknown concept among the self-congratulatory "godly folk." An article in The Atlantic looks at a recent study that ought to have Americans concerned.  Here are highlights:

His proportions are based on averages from CDC anthropometric data. As a U.S. male age 30 to 39, his body mass index (BMI) is 29; just one shy of the medical definition of obese. At five-feet-nine-inches tall, his waist is 39 inches.

The weight of everyone's destiny may be equal, but some countries are fat, and others are not. The World Health Organization cares about that, because understanding the differences should help to explicate causes.

Americans are also losing ground in height. For most of two centuries, until 60 years ago, the U.S. population was the tallest in the world. Now the average American man is three inches shorter than the Dutch man, who averages six feet. Japanese averages are also gaining on Americans'. Anthropologists tie these recent changes primarily to diet and lifestyle, as we've turned habitable wilderness into excess.

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World Vision - Caving to Anti-Gay Discrimination

World Vision describes itself as a Christian humanitarian organization that is dedicated to working with children, families, and their communities worldwide to help them achieve their full potential "by tackling the causes of poverty and injustice."  In addition to providing sponsorships for children, World Vision provides emergency assistance to children and families impacted by natural disasters and civil conflicts, and it work with communities to develop long-term solutions to alleviate poverty.  It states that it does all of this for "all people, regardless of religion, race, ethnicity, or gender."  On Monday, World Vision announced that for the first time, it would hire employees in same-sex marriages if the marriages had been legally performed.  That's when the Christofascists went utterly berserk and attacked World Vision and threatened to cease funding and severe affiliation.  Within two days, World Vision reversed its new policy and made clear that the discrimination free agenda it promises doesn't apply to gays.  Think Progress looks at this stunning reversal - and the hypocrisy involved:  Here are excerpts:

World Vision, one of the largest humanitarian organizations on the planet, made two surprising announcements this week. On Monday, the evangelical Christian organization announced that for the first time, it would hire employees in same-sex marriages, then on Wednesday, it reversed that decision. Here’s how World Vision President Richard Stearns and Board Chairman Jim Beré explained the reversal:

In our board’s effort to unite around the church’s shared mission to serve the poor in the name of Christ, we failed to be consistent with World Vision U.S.’s commitment to the traditional understanding of Biblical marriage and our Iown Statement of Faith, which says, “We believe the Bible to be the inspired, the only infallible, authoritative Word of God.” And we also failed to seek enough counsel from our own Christian partners. As a result, we made a change to our conduct policy that was not consistent with our Statement of Faith and our commitment to the sanctity of marriage.

We are brokenhearted over the pain and confusion we have caused many of our friends, who saw this decision as a reversal of our strong commitment to Biblical authority. We as that you understand that this was never the board’s intent. We are asking for your continued support. We commit to you that we will continue to listen tot he wise counsel of Christian brothers and sisters, and we will reach out to key partners in the weeks ahead.

The outcry from conservatives after the original announcement Monday was swift and severe. The Family Research Council decried the decision in its daily email Tuesday, describing it as a “rebellion” against Christ and a “very public divorce from biblical truth.” Tony Perkins made it clear that employing gay, lesbian, and bi people who are married was a dealbreaker for his family’s support of World Vision.

The message from these conservatives is clear: discriminating on the basis of sexual orientation is a higher priority than humanitarian work. An organization that serves the needy can only be supported if it promises it will never provide a salary to to someone in a same-sex marriage. That pressure was enough for World Vision to cave.

But this is a telling admission about conservatives’ intentions. . . . . No [anti-gay]discrimination? No support. . . . Evangelicals and Pentecostals made it clear this week, however, that they will not consider any compromise when it comes to extending jobs to Christians who are also gay, lesbian, or bisexual.

Meanwhile, of course, evangelicals have the highest divorce rate, the highest teen pregnancy rate and the highest obesity rate (heard of the sin of gluttony?).  These people are truly despicable and utter hypocrites to boot.  The world will be a better place when conservative Christianity becomes a dead religion. 

Atheists Divorce Less Than Christians

With the ongoing hyperventilating by the Christofascists over the series of federal court rulings striking down same sex marriage bans and deranged claims that God will smite America for "embracing homosexuality," it is worth revisiting a story from last year which again documents that it is the godly Christian folks themselves who are the gravest threat to marriage.  As noted before, the Bible Belt has the highest divorce rate, the highest teen pregnancy rate and the highest obesity rate (gluttony is one of the seven deadly sins, not that the godly folk seem to have noticed).  But even more damning for those who whine about the "sanctity of marriage" is the fact that godless atheists divorce less frequently than evangelical Christians.   Here are highlights from The New Civil Rights Movement:

An Evangelical Christian pollster finds that atheists commit less crimes, divorce less, and are better educated than their fellow Christians. “It is obvious that you do not have to believe in a higher power in order to live a moral and successful life. Quite the opposite,” the Knoxville News‘ Al Westerfield writes of the study, adding that “the groups with the highest crime rate, the poorest marriages and the lowest education continually strive to force their beliefs on the nonreligious. And the politicians pander to them. Why else would they pass laws to put religion in the schools and on courthouse facades? And then they wonder why the godless could possibly be upset.”

“According to a Barna Research Group report, fundamentalist Christians have the highest divorce rate, followed by Jews and Baptists,” Westerfield writes: 

The godless are tied with Catholics and Lutherans for the lowest divorce rate. It seems that some groups that claim to follow the Bible most strictly are not putting their money where their mouths are. The godless who are thought to be without morals seem to take their vows more seriously.

According to a Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life Survey, the least-educated Americans are Jehovah’s Witnesses, followed by black Protestants and fundamentalist Christians. The most highly educated are reformed Jews, followed by Unitarian Universalists and the godless.

Some groups seem to like their flocks ignorant so that pastors’ interpretations of God’s edicts are not questioned. Other groups prize scholarship and achieve more in their lives here on Earth.

In fact, a review of worldwide studies found that criminality and religion go hand in hand. The countries with the most religious people have the highest crime rates, highest sexually transmitted diseases and the highest teen pregnancy rates.

This is also true in the United States. The more religious a state’s population, the higher the crime, STD and teen pregnancy rates.

Indeed, it would appear that if we really want to increase morality and reduce crime and many other social ills, the best thing we could do is reduce the number of fundamentalist Christians.  P.S. Yes, the image above is a bit mean, but the hypocrisy of these "godly folks" drives me to distraction. 

Mississippi Joins Texas in Refusing to Process Spousal Benefits for Gay Troops

Mississippi - another paragon of bigotry, racism and Bible Belt hypocrisy - has joined Texas in refusing to process spousal benefits on state owned facilities, citing that state's animus inspired anti-gay constitutional amendment.   Given Mississippi's near last place ranking in almost any criteria other than perhaps poverty and obesity, one would think that the state would have more important issues to concentrate on.  But no, discrimination is always given top billing in a state that even Alabama looks down on as inferior.  The Washington Post looks at the situation.  Here are highlights:

The Texas National Guard refused to process requests from same-sex couples for benefits on Tuesday despite a Pentagon directive to do so, while Mississippi won’t issue applications from state-owned offices. Both states cited their respective bans on gay marriage.

Texas and Mississippi appeared to be the only two states limiting how and where same-sex spouses of National Guard members could register for identification cards and benefits, according to an Associated Press tally. Officials in 13 other states that also ban gay marriage — including Arizona, Oklahoma, Florida, Michigan and Georgia — said Tuesday that they will follow federal law and process all couples applying for benefits the same.

Mississippi National Guard spokesman Tim Powell said the main factor in determining where same-sex spouses could apply for benefits came down to the property owner. Powell said only National Guard offices on federal property would accept the applications in Mississippi, which also constitutionally bans gay marriage.

“It is our intent to provide benefits and services to our men and women in uniform and at the same time abide by federal and state statutes,” Powell said.

Pentagon officials said Texas appeared to be the only state with a total ban on processing applications from gay and lesbian couples. Spokesman Lt. Cmdr. Nate Christensen said federal officials will process all applications from same-sex couples with a marriage certificate from a state where it is legal.

Alicia Butler said she was turned away from the Texas Military Forces headquarters in Austin early Tuesday and advised to get her ID card at Fort Hood, an Army post 90 miles away. She married her spouse — an Iraq war veteran — in California in 2009, and they have a 5-month-old child.

In Florida, where gay marriage is banned, state Department of Military Affairs spokesman Lt. Col. James Evans said he was unaware of any policy that would prohibit accepting a request for processing benefits.

Requests for benefits for same-sex couples in Oklahoma, where gay marriage also is illegal, will be handled like those from heterosexual couples, said Oklahoma National Guard spokesman Col. Max Moss. . . . “As long as the soldier presents that marriage certificate or license, then we would treat that claim just like we would any other soldier that brings in a marriage license or certificate,” Moss said.

The Corelation Between Religiosity and Obesity, High Divorce Rates, and Teen Pregnancies

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Gallup has a new report on religiosity by state and not surprisingly, other than Utah and Oklahoma, all of the most religious states are in the Deep South.  Meanwhile, the least religious states clustered in the Northwest and in the Northeast.  In a related report, Gallup also found that the highest rates of obesity, lack of health insurance coverage and struggles to subsist were correlated to the most religious states.  First these findings on levels of religiosity (see the chart above as well):

Overall, 40% of Americans nationwide were classified as very religious in 2012 -- based on saying religion is an important part of their daily life and that they attend religious services every week or almost every week. Thirty-one percent of Americans were nonreligious, saying religion is not an important part of their daily life and that they seldom or never attend religious services. The remaining 29% of Americans were moderately religious, saying religion is important in their lives but that they do not attend services regularly, or that religion is not important but that they still attend services.

Eight of the top 10 religious states are in the South -- basically comprising the entire Southern belt from Georgia and the two Carolinas on the Atlantic coast through Tennessee, Alabama, and Mississippi, to Louisiana and Arkansas in the west. The states outside the Southern belt are Utah -- with its strongly religious majority Mormon population -- and Oklahoma, which straddles the border between the South and the Midwest.

The 12 least religious states comprise the entirety of New England -- Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut -- along with the three most Northwestern states in the union, Alaska, Washington, and Oregon, plus the District of Columbia, Nevada, and Hawaii.

As for social malaise correlating to the most religious states, there are these highilights:

Texas residents continue to be the most likely in the U.S. to lack health insurance (25.5%) in 2012 and those in Massachusetts remain least likely (4.1%).

One in four Mississippi residents report lacking enough money to buy the food they or their families needed at times in the last 12 months -- more than any other state in 2012. North Dakotans were the least likely to struggle to afford food, at 9.6%.

A majority of American adults in all 50 states are either overweight or obese in 2012. West Virginia residents are the most likely to fall into one of these weight groups (69.3%), while Coloradans are least likely (55.1%).

Obesity rates remain highest in many Southern and Midwestern states. Western and Northeastern states still boast the lowest obesity rates in the country. Diabetes and high blood pressure rates follow the same geographic pattern.

As this blog has noted frequently, states in the Bible Belt also have the highest divorce rates and the highest teen pregnancy rates.   Obviously, there is a major discontent between claimed religiosity and actual behavior.  Some might call the phenomenon rank hypocrisy.

The Bible Belt and the GOP

This photo sums it up pretty well when it comes to the hypocrisy of the anti-gay bigots in the Bible Belt.  It applies equally to many in the GOP who continue to say that sexuality is a "choice" even as they treat religious belief as if it were genetic.  Of the three, obesity, being gay, and holding a particular religious belief, the last is clearly the one that's a voluntary "life style choice."

Evangelicals and Obesity

Not only do evangelicals have the highest divorce rate of any Christian group (Baptists lead the way in divorce), but they seem to win for being the most obese as well. Baptists again win as the most over weight, followed by fundamentalist Protestant congregations -- Church of Christ, Pentecostal, Assembly of God, and Church of God. This map pretty much tracts obesity rates with where evangelicals reside in the largest numbers in the USA. Perhaps if they focused less on disparaging gays and spreading intolerance, they could spend more time dealing with their own serious problems. Just a thought.